The Following is a translation of the "Relatio ante
disceptationem" delivered by Cardinal Angelo Scola, Patriarch of
Venice and General Relator of the 11th Ordinary General Assembly
of the Synod of Bishops, during the Synod's First General
Congregation on Monday, 3 October [2005].

INTRODUCTION

Eucharist: The freedom of God encounters the freedom of
man

I. Eucharistic amazement

When they celebrate the Eucharist, "the faithful can relive
in some way the experience of the two disciples of Emmaus: 'and
their eyes opened and they recognized him' (Lk 24:31)".l
This is why John Paul II asserts that the
Eucharistic action incites amazement.2

Amazement is the immediate answer of man to the reality
calling upon him. It expresses the recognition that reality is a
friend to him, it is a positive that encounters his constitutive
expectations.

St. Paul, writing to the Romans, explains the reason for
this: reality safeguards the good plan of the Creator. To such a
point that the Apostle could say of men that "in their injustice
[they] hold back the truth", that they "have no excuse", because
"for what can be known about God is perfectly plain to them" 
because "ever since the creation of the world, the invisible
existence of God and his everlasting power have been clearly
seen by the mind's understanding of created things"  , "they
knew God and yet they did not honour him as God or give thanks
to him" (cf. Rom 1:19-21).

Uncertainty and fear, instead, can come into it at a later
time in man's experience when, because of the finite and evil,
fear makes its way within him and the positive aspect of reality
does not remain.

Thus, on one hand, Eucharistic action, as with all of
Christianity as a source of amazement,3
is inscribed in human experience as such. However, on the other
hand, this is manifested as an unexpected and completely free
event. In the Eucharist, God's plan as a plan of love is
revealed. In this, the Deus Trinitas, which in itself is
love (cf. I Jn 4:7-8), stoops down into the given Body and Blood
poured out by Jesus Christ, becoming food and drink that nurture
man's life (cf. Lk 22:14-20; I Cor 11:23-26).

This is like the two disciples on the road to Emmaus,
regenerated by Eucharistic amazement, who took up their path
again (cf. Lk 24:32-33); thus, the People of God, abandoning
themselves to the power of the Sacrament, are urged to share the
history of all humanity.

John Paul II, with great insight  and also immediately made
his own by Benedict XVI  wished to prolong the beneficial
fruits of the Great Jubilee in the special Year of the
Eucharist,4 establishing that
this 11th Ordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops be
dedicated to The Eucharist:Source and Summit of the
Life and Mission of the Church. The solemn Eucharistic
concelebration by which we initiated the Synod yesterday in St.
Peter's Basilica, objectively opened us to that attitude of
amazement, if opportunely seconded during our deliberations,
which will contribute to making us rediscover the centrality and
beauty of the Eucharist in the Church spread throughout the
entire world.

Why is the Eucharist the fascinating heart of the life of the
People of God destined for the salvation of all of humanity?
Because it reveals and makes present today the history of Jesus
Christ as the achieved meaning of human existence in all of its
personal and communal dimensions,5
and documents it on an anthropological, cosmological and social
level.

"The truth is that only in the mystery of the Incarnate Word
does the mystery of man take on light":6
in the Eucharist, this central conciliar assertion reveals all
its realism. In the bread and wine, the fruits of the earth and
of labour, the total offering that man makes of himself, one of
soul and of body,7 of his
sentiments and his work, is reasserted; his relationship of
permanent interaction with the universe is expressed, and at the
same time his original solidarity with all his brethren, from
the family and the closest communities to reach the extreme
boundaries of the earth, is documented.

In the Eucharistic gift, the believer is allowed access to
the living and personal Truth, which "indeed makes free" (cf. Jn
8:36). In the Eucharist, the invitation from Jesus "if you wish
to be perfect" (Mt 19:21) takes on its full meaning. Man is
provoked to come out of himself towards others and all of
reality in order to satisfy the desire for happiness he bears in
his own heart,8 In the
Eucharist, Jesus truly becomes the Way to the Truth that gives
Life (cf. Jn 14:6).9

In this, the Church, both a personal and social reality at
the same time, concretely becomes a people of peoples, that
admirable sui generis ethnic entity of which Paul VI
spoke.10

Source and summit of the life and mission of the Church "is
the whole Triduum Paschale, but this is as it were
gathered up, foreshadowed and concentrated for ever in the gift
of the Eucharist", inasmuch as it activates "a mysterious
'oneness in time' between that Triduum and the passage of the
centuries".11

For this, for the past 2,000 years, the holy People of God,
whatever the generation, status, race or culture they belong to,
convenes every Sunday in the ecclesia eucaristica,
publicly professing their own faith. In fact, the Eucharist, in
itself and in its connection with the seven-day sacramental,
reveals the entire breadth of the mystery of the faith.12
This concretely explains why, even during times and places of
greatest trials, the Church, supported by the Spirit, never
weakened. To oppose this, the bimillennial practice13
of placing Sunday Eucharistic action in the central place
contributed greatly.

These are, in the final analysis, the reasons that can
inspire Eucharistic amazement in the men and women of all times
and all places. The present Relatio ante disceptationem
intends to show this in some way. In the preparatory framework
of the Lineamenta first and the Instrumentum laboris
later, without the pretence of being complete but also without
avoiding the main problems, the only goal is that of opening up
dialogue between the Synod Fathers. I will anticipate the points
to facilitate our work.

After having referred to Eucharistic amazement, the
Introduction (Eucharist: The freedom of God encounters
the freedom of man) emphasizes the connection between the
Eucharist with evangelization and with the ratio
sacramentalis proper in Revelation. In the First Chapter
(The novum in Christian worship) I will try to
highlight the new things in Christian worship. The Second
Chapter (Eucharistic action) will deal with
Eucharistic action and its distinctive elements, and the
necessary connection between ars celebrandi and
actuosa participatio.

A Third Chapter (Anthropological, cosmological and
social dimensions of the Eucharist) will try to show how the
Eucharist intrinsically contains an anthropological,
cosmological and social dimension. The Conclusion (Eucharistic
existence in contemporary trials) will offer a synthetic
summary of the issues treated in order to end with a brief wish
regarding our workings.

II. The Eucharist implies evangelization

The data gathered by the Instrumentum laboris prepared
in view of this Synodal Assembly of ours show that Eucharistic
practice is very varied in the large areas of the globe. This
certainly has a lot to do with their significant cultural
differences, which are also clearly expressed in the quality of
participation in the Eucharist, which, in turn, is connected to
the authenticity of the arscelebrandi.

However, a general overview is needed. The decrease in
Eucharistic amazement depends, in a final analysis, on the
finitude and on the sin of the subject. Often, however, this
finds fertile ground in the fact that the Christian community
which celebrates the Eucharist is far-removed from reality. It
lives in abstractions. It no longer speaks to the concrete man,
to his sentiments, his work, his rest, his needs for unity,
truth, goodness, beauty. And thus, Eucharistic action, separated
from daily existence, no longer accompanies the believer in the
process of personal maturation and in the person's relationship
with the universe and with society.

The Synodal Assembly will need to look into this state of
matters carefully and suggest some possible remedies. It cannot
limit itself to re-emphasizing the centrality of the Eucharist
and the diesDomini. Objectively, this is outside
the discussion, but the difficulties lie in how to rekindle
amazement, generated by the Eucharist, in the many
non-practicing baptized persons (in some European countries this
can be more than 80%). "Before men can come to the liturgy they
must be called to faith and to conversion"4
 we must not forget this.

Therefore, the proclamation and the personal and communal
witness of Jesus Christ to all men and women are necessary to
inspiring vital and open Christian communities. Also, the life
of these communities demands a systematic formation in the "mind
of Christ" (I Cor 2:16) (catechesis, in a very particular way
that which concerns Christian initiation of children and adults,
and culture). This happens through education in free giving
(charity, commitment to social sharing). It requires a universal
communication of the new life in Christ (mission). In a word,
the constitutional factors of evangelization are essential
implications in Eucharistic action.

III. The Eucharist and the 'ratio sacramentalis' of
Revelation

Vatican Council II, especially in the Dogmatic Constitution
Dei Verbum, emphasized the characteristic of event
proper to Revelation. Thus, it offered solid doctrinal basis for
Eucharistic realism that can only guarantee the contemporariness
between the saving Triduum of Easter and the person of all
times.

The Constitution delves into the teachings of Vatican I in a
Christocentric key. Revelation is achieved and completed in the
Person and the history of Jesus Christ, true man and true God,
crucified, died and risen for us men an for our salvation.15
In his work of salvation he reveals the merciful
face of the Father, who makes us sons in the Son through the
power of the Risen Spirit (cf. Eph 1:5). "Nomen Trinitatis
publicando"16 Jesus Christ,
through the total donation of his innocent life, unravels the
enigma of man, and in this way gives worth to his freedom,
enabling him to decide for himself.

In fact, Jesus Christ asks each person to freely welcome,
through obedience to faith, this gift of his in every act of
one's existence (cf. Rv 3:20). This welcoming implies, in turn,
the total giving of one's self on the person's part (cf. Mt
19:21). The result is the exclusion of any magical concept of
sacrament in general and the Eucharist in particular.

Christ himself anticipated the unique and unrepeatable event
of the Paschal Triduum in the Supper with his Apostles, which he
strongly desired (cf. Lk 22:15). Sitting at the table with the
apostles at the Last Supper, Jesus instituted the Eucharist.
Through the gift the Holy Spirit, which makes possible the
effective realization of the command "do this in memory of me" (Lk
22:19; Cor 11:25), he opens the believer of all times to the
possibility of taking part salvation.

Therefore, in the Eucharistic action, the freedom of God
effectively encounters the freedom of man. From this encounter
with freedom the Christian, marked by the recognition of the
gift God and communion with him and his brothers, is prone to
give his entire life a Eucharistic form.17
And this is because in the Eucharist is expressed in an eminent
way what Fides et Ratio calls the "ratio
sacramentalis of revelation".18
This allows the faithful to discover that, through all the
circumstances and all the relationships that objectively make up
human existence, the event of Jesus Christ calls his liberty to
a progressive involvement with the life of the Trinity.

Accompanying the person in this experience is Jesus himself:
"I am with you always, yes, to the end of time" (Mt 28:20). For
this he assures his loving community: "for where two or three
meet in my name, I am there among them" (Mt 18:20). This is how
the primitive community lived from the beginning: "These
remained faithful to the teaching of the apostles, to the
brotherhood, to the breaking of bread and to the prayers" (Acts
2:42). And on the life of this People of God, which through
history throws a brilliant light on the eschatological
perspective in which Jesus placed, from its institution,
Eucharistic action: "I tell you, I shall never again drink wine
until the day I drink the new wine with you in the kingdom of my
Father" (Mt 26:29; Mk 14:25; Lk 22:18).

The ratio sacramentalis implicated in the mystery of
the Incarnation, death and Resurrection of Jesus Christ, shows
that the life of every man is objectively vocation. Every state
of life19  marriage,
ministerial priesthood, consecrated virginity
 receives the final root of
its own form from the Eucharistic mystery. Therefore, in the
Eucharistic convocation, each believer finds the origin and
meaning of one's own vocation, which impresses a Eucharistic
form to existence.

CHAPTER ONE

The 'novum' in Christian worship

The imposing fact of the 2,000 years of practice of the
Sunday Eucharistic., celebration, decisive for the genesis and
growth of the Christian communities of every time and place, is
not insignificant. This supremacy of the Eucharist as action is
exhaustively explained from the ratio sacramentalis of
revelation from which the Eucharistic form of Christian
existence flows. For this we must decisively place at the centre
of our workings on the Eucharist, source and summit of the life
and the mission of the Church, the deeper knowledge of
Eucharistic action itself. This choice allows the overcoming
of every false opposition between theology and liturgy.

I. The 'logikē latreํa'
(Rom 12:1)

While recognizing with scholars a certain differentiated
anthropological continuity with the rites proper to the various
religious forms, in a particular way the sacrificial rites of
the Ancient Near East, with Hellenistic and in particular with
the sacred meals of Judaism during the Hellenistic era, it is
recognized today by all that the Eucharistic of Jesus in the
Last Supper gave life to a novum.

The institution of the Eucharist is inserted into a ritual
supper, whose Paschal context has already been ascertained (cf.
Mt 26:9-20; Mk 16:18; Lk 22:13-14; Jn 13:1-2),20
like the singular action by which Jesus associates his own to
his hour and mission, anticipating the sacrifice of his
Passover, the definitive way to establish the Kingdom. Eating
his Body and drinking his Blood, the disciples are incorporated
into Christ: in this way communion is activated, which
constitutes the Church.

At the Last Supper, Jesus Christ "speaks to the disciples in
words that sum up the whole of the Law and the Prophets",21
offering himself as the sole victim proportionate
to the Father (cf. Mt 26:26-28;. Mk 14:22-24; Lk 22:19-20; I Cor
11:23 ff.). He also involves his disciples in this act, not
through a formal and sad remembrance of his person and action,
but for the permanent and active participation in his offering
by the disciples until the end of time: "Do this in memory of
me" (Lk 22:19).

There thus emerges the indissoluble tie that binds the
Eucharist to the Church and the Church to the Eucharist. It is
not by chance that ecclesia is the technical term that
from the beginning indicates the action of Eucharistic reunion
for the Christians (cf. I Cor 11:18; 14:4-5, 19, 28). "From the
very beginning, the Church has drawn her life from the
Eucharist. This Sacrament is the reason for her existence, the
inexhaustible source of her holiness, the power of her unity,
the bond of her communion, the source of her dynamism in
preaching the Gospel, the principle of her evangelizing
activity, the font of charity, the heart of human promotion and
the anticipation of her glory in the Eternal Banquet at the
Wedding Feast of the Lamb (cf. Rv 19:7-9)".22

From what has been said, Eucharistic activity emerges in all
its strength as the source and summit of the Christian's
ecclesial existence because it expresses, at the same time, the
genesis and the achievement of the new and definitive worship,
the logikē latreํa:
"I urge you, then, brothers, remembering the mercies of God, to
offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, dedicated and
acceptable to God; that is the kind of worship for you, as
sensible people (tēn
logikēn latreํan)"
(Rom 12:1).

This Pauline vision of the new worship as a total offering of
one's person  "May he make
us an everlasting gift to you"23
 has definitely overcome any separation between the sacred and
the profane. Christian worship is not a parenthesis within an
existence lived in a profane horizon. Neither is it a purely
sacrificial and reparatory act for offences or distancing from
the eyes of God. New Christian worship becomes the expression of
all renewed existence: "Whether you eat, then, or drink, and
whatever else you do, you do it all for the glory of God" (I Cor
10:31). Every act of freedom by the Christian is thus called to
be an act of worship. The intrinsically Eucharistic nature of
Christian spirituality takes its form from this.

Inasmuch as it assumes the human being in all its historical
depth, the Eucharist, the summit of sacramental life,24
makes possible, day after day, the progressive transfiguration
of the predestined man called by grace to be the image of the
Son himself (cf. Eph 1:4-5). Think about the extraordinary
efficiency of Baptism: we discover that the children
incorporated into Christ in the Church are ours because they are
sons of our Father who is in heaven. Confirmation unveils
to those receiving it, who are called to witness, that
sentiments and work receive real truth from the gift of the
Spirit of Jesus Christ , died and risen. The determining
sacramental experience of the affective life, Matrimony, is
entrusted to the Church by the Lord. He alone is able to achieve
the "for ever" of love that all spouses, when truly in love,
have in their hearts. And is this not perhaps the most human and
delicate attentiveness to freedom 
often hurt by sin  which the Church offers us by inviting us to
reconciliation with God and with our brothers and sisters in the
Sacrament of Penance? Then, when man is hurt in his own
flesh by the inevitable trial of illness, the
Anointing of the Sick expresses the special closeness of
Jesus, who suffered so much, died and rose for us. This is an
altogether particular closeness if accompanied by the regular
possibility offered to the sick of receiving Communion and, when
necessary, Holy Viaticum: all this that we may promptly heal
and, in any case, not lose hope of rising with him and thus of
meeting him once again as well as our brothers and sisters in
our real bodies. Some, though not because of their merits but
through the initiative of the Spirit of Jesus, are taken into
the service of God's People as ordained ministers (Sacrament of
Holy Orders).

In this way the liturgical life of our communities testifies
to how in the concrete development of human existence
 birth, relationships,
love, suffering, death, life after death  Jesus is made present
to all people every day, in every situation.25
In this framework there once again emerges the power of the
ratio sacramentalis of the Catholic genius.

II. The value of the Eucharistic rite

In this vision inaugurated by Christian Eucharist, not only
worship but also the rite begins to take on a radically new
physiognomy: that of the action of Christ himself, who with the
gift of his Spirit, admits his own into the Father's presence to
"accomplish the priestly service".26

By its nature as the source of logikē
latreํa the ritual
Eucharistic action becomes objectively also the most essential
and decisive of all human actions. In the Eucharistic rite, in
fact, the accomplished meaning of history and thereby its truth
erupts at a precise moment in time. In this way, the Eucharistic
rite creates a discontinuity in the development of daily human
events, but it is in this open space, open to this
discontinuity, that man learns to decide for himself about the
truth objectively given to him by the rite itself. This choice
comes about by faith: one can confront oneself with the given
truth only by the total entrustment of oneself.

Therefore, Eucharistic action is the source and summit of
Christian ecclesial existence due to the celebration of the rite
itself, which in all its substantial fullness adequately
expresses the faith lived by the Christian people.

Inserted temporally and spatially into the weave of daily
existence, but at the same time coming "from above" as a
sacrament, that is to say, an efficient sign and instrument of
divine grace, the ritual Eucharistic action becomes a paradigm
of man's entire existence.27

The Eucharistic rite is not accidental with respect to
personal and social existence, nor intrinsic to the inevitable
being of man in the world, but it is the centre of the real life
of the new creature (cf. II Cor 5:17; Gal 6:15). His existence
is completely human and therefore historical, but at the same
time, due to the Eucharistic memory of the Body given and the
Blood poured out by the Crucified and Risen One, it already
lives in the eternal perspective of Resurrection (cf. I Cor
15:19 22).28

In Eucharistic action the earthly liturgy is intimately bound
with celestial one.29 The
exchange of communion between the living and the dead, of which
Masses in suffrage of the dead are important expressions,
constitutes a permanent witness of the Church's faith in the
inseparable bond between earthly life and eternal life.30

This unitary vision of the Eucharistic action as the heart of
all of Christian existence has always been present in ecclesial
consciousness. From putting oneself in the action made by Jesus
as maintained by the Biblical canon, to the traditio that
in its unceasing rhythm of transmission and reception ensures it
through time and space; from the various liturgical forms of the
first centuries which still shine today in the liturgical rites
of the ancient Eastern Churches, the predominant fixation of the
Roman rite; from the precise indications at the Council of Trent
and the Missal of Pius V to the liturgical reform of Vatican:
each step in the life of the Church confirms the fact that
Eucharisticaction, source and summit of Christian
ecclesial existence, coincides with the sacramental rite that
generates and accomplish new and definitive worship (logikē
latreํa).

Consideration of the rite in all its fullness allows avoiding
any fragmentation and juxtaposition between Eucharist action and
the needs of the new evangelization, which go from the
proclamation in every milieu of human existence to the necessary
anthropological, cosmological and social implications that the
Eucharist objectively places in the field. It also permits the
Christian community to simultaneously pursue an accurate
faithfulness to liturgical rubrics and an attentive ability to
adapt in the instances of inculturation.

III. The Eucharistic celebration makes the Church

The Eucharistic amazement of the two disciples of Emmaus
echoes in the marvel of the liturgical action of the Eucharistic
celebration. This is the act of worship called to express the
unique Paschal event in an eminent way.

During the Last Supper Jesus clearly manifested through his
gestures and words the intrinsic bond between the advent of the
kingdom of the Father and his personal destiny (cf. Mt 26 26:29;
Mk 14:25; Lk 22:15-16; Jn 12:23-24). In the transforming
identification of the bread and wine with the Body and Blood of
Christ (Real Presence31), the
Last Supper sacramentally anticipates the sacrifice of the new
Passover as the form through which the Father accomplishes, in
the Son and with the work the Holy Spirit, his redemptive plan
salvation: "Then he took bread, a when he had given thanks, he
broke and gave it to them, saying, 'This is body given for you;
do this in remembrance of me'. He did the same with the cup
after supper and said, 'This cup is the new covenant in my blood
pour out for you" (Lk 22:19-20).

Everyone can see the difficulty that the sacrificial
language, used in the Scriptures and by the tradition of the
Church,32 encounters in today's
culture.33 However, if one
wishes to respect the full weight of the unconditional gift
Jesus Christ gives of himself, it would seem urgent today to
rediscover the Eucharist as sacrifice. Jesus Christ calls his
disciples to that integral form of worship (logikē
latreํa) which is the
offering of one's whole life, in which the Christian is
progressively moulded through the full, acknowledged and active
participation in the Eucharistic celebration.34

The invitation to eat his Body and drink his Blood
(Communion) constitutes the sure road to salvation (cf. Jn
6:47-58).35 Therefore, the
memorial continuity with the Jewish Passover (cf. Dt 16:1 ff.)
possesses the physical concreteness of the assumption of the
Eucharistic species, safeguarded from any intellectual
limitation of faith. The fruit of this action is sacramental
communion with Christ (cf. I Cor 10:16), made possible by the
love with which the Spirit glorifies the flesh of the Risen One.
The same Spirit who moves Christ to the total giving of himself
moves his disciples to welcome him in obedience to faith, moves
them to remain in him and to thus receive life as he receives it
from the Father (cf. Jn 14:26; 16:13).

This Sacrament is given for the communion of men in Christ.
For Paul, the koinonia is the fruit of the Eucharist
through which Christians, incorporated into Christ, become one
body and participate in the one Spirit (cf. I Cor 10:16-17).36
They are the new People of God who, guided by the successors of
the apostles cum et sub the Successor of Peter, go
through history with the sure hope that the Risen Jesus
constitutes the beginning of their personal resurrection (cf. I
Cor 15:17-20).

Outside this Eucharistic and sacramental Communion the Church
is not fully constituted:37
TheEucharist makes the Church. The new People of God
(ecclesial body) is configured by the Eucharistic Body of
Christ, which makes sacramentally present the Body of Jesus,
born of the Most Holy Virgin Mary.38
The ecclesial body thus becomes truly moulded like the Body of
Christ present in time and in history, due to the bond that ties
it to the Eucharistic Body of Christ.39
In the ritual celebration of the Eucharist the Church
realizes the form itself of its identity as people
gathered by the love of God.

1. A first confirmation: the Bishop, liturgist par
excellence

This becomes even clearer if one looks at the venerable
tradition that has always recognized the Bishop as the liturgist
par excellence and the administrator of the sacraments.40
The Bishop does not preside over the Eucharist due
to a merely juridical reason, because he is the "head" of the
local church, but in remaining faithful to the commandment of
the Lord who entrusted the memorial of his Paschal event to
Peter and the apostles. He made them the faithful dispensers of
his mysteries and, due to this, the first ones responsible for
the evangelical proclamation to the whole world.

For this reason, "the diocesan Bishop is the guide, the
promoter and the custodian of all liturgical life. In the
celebrations done under his presidency, especially the
Eucharist, celebrated with the participation of the priests, the
deacons and the people, the mystery of the Church is
manifested".41 This is
especially evident in Eucharistic concelebration by the ordained
ministers, "which adequately manifests the unity of the
priesthood".42 Communion with
the Bishop is the condition for legitimizing the Eucharistic
celebration in favour of the People of God.

Once more the fruitfulness of the ratio sacramentalis
of revelation comes to light: the ecclesial subject (personal or
communal) does not participate fully in redemption if he does
not embrace the sacramental modalities that constitute the form
that Jesus chose to remain within human events.

2. A second confirmation: the nature of the Christian
temple

A second confirmation of how the Eucharistic celebration
concretely makes the Church is the radical differences
between the Christian temple, the pagan temple and the Judaic
one. While the pagan temple and the Judaic one were
characterized by the presence of the divinity and because of
this presence were considered sacred and sacralized, the "place"
of Christian worship in a certain sense consists in the action
itself of the celebration of the mystery. The word ecclesia
indicates the action of Christian uniting. Only as a consequence
did it come to indicate the place itself, for this reunion,
where divine presence is realized.

Also, while in the pagan temple and in a certain sense even
the Judaic temple the encounter of the faithful is in some way
casual, in the place for Christian worship this is the
constitutive element of the temple itself. Each and every member
of the faithful is the living stone of the temple (cf. I Pt
2:5). The Spirit is the cement that unites them (cf. Eph 2:22).

This explains the care with which the Church unceasingly
offers direction about architecture and sacred art.43
In fact, the temples should be modelled upon the
liturgical assembly in actucelebrationis, as
"epiphany" of the communio hierarchica that is the
Church.

3. A third confirmation: 'Intercommunion'?

A rather delicate pastoral problem, tied to the ecumenical
field, allows for further verification of the fact that, within
the inseparable connection between the Eucharist and the Church,
the causality of the Eucharist over the Church (the Eucharist
makes the Church) is essential and a priority with respect
to that of the Church over the Eucharist (the Church makes
the Eucharist).44 This fact
leads to underlining the decisive weight of the Eucharist in
ecumenical practice.

The many developments in this matter are well-known.45
They are, at the same time, the consequence and
cause of the intense ecumenical work of the 20th century.

First of all, one must highlight the substantial communion of
faith between the Catholic Church and the Orthodox Church on the
theme of the Eucharist and the priesthood,46
a communion that is destined to grow through a major mutual
study of the Eucharistic Celebration and Divine Liturgy.47

We should also welcome in a positive way the new climate on
the Eucharist in the ecclesial communities born at the time of
the Reform. In different degrees and with few exceptions, even
these communities always underline the conclusiveness of the
Eucharist as the key element in dialogue and ecumenical
practice.

On the basis of this and other data one can understand how,
even after magisterial pronouncements on this subject,48
this question is unceasingly asked: Can "intercommunion" of the
faithful belonging to different churches and ecclesial
communities constitute an adequate tool in favour of the path
towards Christian unity?

The answer depends upon the careful consideration of the
nature of Eucharistic action in all its fullness as mysterium
fidei.49 In fact, the
Eucharistic celebration is by its nature the profession of the
integral faith in the Church.

Inserting the sacrifice on Golgotha into the Last Supper, the
Lord realizes the communion of his Person with his disciples and
makes this possible for all the faithful in all times and
places. Participation in this communion goes beyond the ability
of human love and one's noble intentions. Through listening to
the Word, realized fully in welcoming the offering of the Body
and Blood of Christ, Eucharistic action expresses the fullness
of faith and the visible unity of the faithful, which Jesus
invites the apostles to join in service as priests and Pastors.

Only inasmuch as it realizes the full profession of apostolic
faith in this mystery does the Eucharist make the Church.
If it is the Eucharist that ensures the true unity of the
Church, celebration or participation in the Eucharist that does
not imply the respect of all the factors that concur to its
fullness would end up, despite the best of intentions, by
further dividing ecclesial communion and its origins. Therefore,
intercommunion does not seem to be an adequate means to achieve
Christian unity.50

This assertion on intercommunion does not exclude the fact
that, under special circumstances and with respect for the
objective conditions,51 one may
admit to the Eucharistic communion, as panisviatorum,
individual persons belonging to churches or ecclesial
communities that are not in full communion with the Catholic
Church. In this case, the necessary exactness requires that we
speak about Eucharistic hospitality. We are in the
presence of the pastoral solicitude (historical-salvific) of the
Church which encounters a particular circumstance of need on the
part of a baptized Faithful.52
In these cases the Catholic Church allows Eucharistic Communion
to a non-Catholic faithful if he asks for it spontaneously,
shows an acceptance of the Catholic faith regarding the
Eucharist and is spiritually well-disposed.

The problems underlying the inadequate category of
"intercommunion" and the practice of Eucharistic hospitality
require further reflection, starting from the intrinsic bond
between the Eucharist and the Church, on the relationship
between Eucharistic Communion and ecclesial communion. In this
sense, it might be useful for the Synodal Assembly to go back to
these elements.

In responding to the urgency of the ecumenical journey we
must not forget the main path. Not being admitted to Eucharistic
concelebration and Eucharistic Communion by Christians from
different churches and ecclesial communities and the exceptional
quality of Eucharistic hospitality are not simply causes for
suffering; rather, they must represent the permanent prodding
for the continuous and common search for the mysterium fidei
that requires of all Christians the unity in the integral
profession of faith.

CHAPTER TWO

Eucharistic action

After having suggested some methodological elements to
explain the novum of worship and the Christian rite, it
would now be opportune to consider closely Eucharistic action
per se. First of all, the main distinctive elements of
Eucharistic celebration will be examined. Secondly, some
reflections on the ars celebrandi and the actuosa
participatio will be proposed.

I. Distinctive elements of the Eucharistic celebration

A synthetic look at the distinctive elements of Eucharistic
celebration reveals the force of the harmonious and articulate
unity of the Eucharistic rite. We do not intend, at this moment,
to go back over in a complete way the various moments of the
Eucharistic celebration, but limit ourselves to identifying the
essential nucleus: the inseparable unity of the liturgy of
the Word and Eucharistic liturgy. Starting with what has
been previously stated, we will consider it in its essential
nature as gift. As a result, however, one must underline
how, when faced with the presence Eucharistically given by
Jesus, the faithful are called to adoration, and how,
faced with such a great mystery, they must confess their own
sins and ask for forgiveness. We will also mention the
duty (ite, missa est) which by its very own
nature generates such a gift.

1. Inseparable unity of the liturgy of the Word and
Eucharistic liturgy

In the historical evolution that goes from Jesus Christ's
Last Supper to the Eucharist that the Church lives today, the
constitutive and permanent nucleus of the ritual action is given
by the close bond between the liturgy of the Word and
Eucharistic liturgy.53

In this unity, "eulogia" and "Eucharist" propose to the faith
of Christ's followers the Paschal Mystery through the listening
and explanation of the Scriptures (homily54),
inseparable from the representation of the sacrifice
(Eucharistic prayer), which culminates in Communion with the
bread and wine transformed into the Body and Blood of Christ.55
This can be seen in the compared structure of the stories about
the institution, this can be drawn from the action of Emmaus,
this is confirmed in the description of common life of the first
Christians that Acts 2:42 shows us. Just as, without any
solution of continuity, the entire history of Eucharistic
celebration bears witness to this, to the one delineated in
today's Missal.

From this inseparable unity emerges certain constitutive
elements on the unique Eucharist of Jesus Christ that brings
about the faith of Christians.

First of all is the factor that the protagonist of the
liturgical action is Jesus Christ. He, concentrating on his
Person and his history in the Paschal event, reveals himself at
the same time as priest, victim and altar.

As priest, Jesus Christ, through the power of the
Spirit, becomes the bridge between God the Father and the people
(cf. Heb 5:5-10).56 As
witnessed to in the stories about the Last Supper, he himself
interprets his priestly mission objectively in the scriptural
eulogia and in the sacrificial offering. But at the same time,
Jesus is the propitiatory victim (cf I Jn 2:2; 4:10), and in
such a way that his priesthood implies the total donation of
himself, which is manifested in the offering of the bread and
wine transformed into his given Body and in his poured out Blood
(sacrifice57), of which the
people physically take part (Communion58).

This priest, who is also victim, offer his sacrifice on the
Cross.59 Nailed to the Cross he
lowers the heavens to earth reconciling (redemption) man with
God (cf. Eph 2:14-16; Col 1:19-20). The Cross stuck into
Golgotha ends up expressing the entire universe, and Christ,
priest and victim, becomes one with the Cross to which he is
nailed. It thus also be comes the cosmic altar.

This knowledge should stop the progressive weakening of the
sense of mystery to which many Christian communities are exposed
today, especially in the Eucharistic celebration. So as not to
fall into a "sacral" vision which is certainly not Christian,
one risks, so to speak turning liturgy into a mere expression of
the "horizontal" dimension of the community, forgetting the
"vertical" one.

Jesus Christ, unique and unrepeatable protagonist of the
Eucharistic rite, convokes in the Spirit the assembly of
Christians, called upon to take part in faith (Creed), in an
articulate and ordered way, in the holy mysteries celebrated in
his favour (Masses pro populo). In silence, in dialogue,
in songs, in body gestures, Eucharistic action develops by means
of which salvation is communicated to the assembly of the
faithful.60 About what has been
said, we sense the need for studies on liturgical formation
addressed to the entire People of God
 our catechesis should
recuperate the fundamental mystagogical dimension of the first
centuries  and in
particular to all those who are called upon to practice
ministries or offices during the celebration (priest, deacons,
readers, acolytes, ministers, schola cantorum).

In articulating the offices of the celebration, which is done
within the Christian temple oriented to the altar where the ambo
and the see are coordinated, the priest does his singular
ministry with the particular assistance of the deacon. At the
decisive moment of the celebration, he acts in persona
Christi capitis,61 ensuring
by the power of the Sacrament of Holy Orders, not by chance
inserted by Christ himself within the Eucharistic institution of
the Last Supper, what Eastern and Western Tradition both call
sacramental economy.62 This
is the work of the Holy Spirit invoked during the Eucharist
through the epiclesis, so that it may activate the
substantial conversion of the bread and wine into the Body
and Blood of Christ63 and that
it may generate the Eucharistic res, which is the
unity of the Church.64

It is thus understood how the inseparable unity of the
liturgy of the Word and the Eucharistic liturgy flows into
sacramental Communion,65 to
which the faithful are admitted, with significant realism,
through the physical act of the procession. Through the
assimilation of the sacramental species, in reality, as the
Church has always professed, the faithful are assimilated into
Christ, incorporated into him, for their salvation66
and the salvation of the world.67

Time and space, inescapable coordinates of the life of man,
are assumed and transformed by the Eucharistic action with a
view to this salvation. If the configuration of the temple
manifests this transformation of space, the beauty and
articulation of the Liturgical Year, starting with the Easter
Triduum passing through the dies Domini and the
liturgical times, express in a Eucharistic way the redemption of
time: this is no longer a succession of instants destined to
fade away, but becomes a sacrament of the eternal.

a. The Eucharistic gift: neither right nor possession

The characteristic of gift proper to the Eucharistic action,
which implies the communication of the freedom of the Deus
Trinitas in Jesus Christ to the freedom of men, asks that
its gratuity never be misunderstood. Even if its absence
provokes great suffering, it does not confer upon the faithful
nor the People of God any right to the Eucharist.

For the same reason, it would be somehow a form of idolatry
to think that the gift of the Eucharist could ever be
"possessed" by man; it does not support a nearly gnostic
pretension of dominion. Nor can Eucharistic adoration end up
being a gaze which aims to understand the latens deitas,
even if Jesus Christ, in an act of extreme self-lowering, ties
himself permanently to the species.

a1. Sunday Assemblies in the absence of a priest

The problem of the lack of priests can be faced with courage
in the perspective of Eucharist as gift. This state of things
has given rise to a considerable increase of "Sunday Assemblies
in the absence of a priest" (Liturgies of the Word with or
without the distribution of Communion, celebrations of the
Liturgy of the Hours or of popular devotions).68

In regard to this it is especially important to insist on the
belonging of every community, especially the Parish, to a
Diocese.69 The Eucharist is
never missing in the local Diocese. For this reason it is good
pastoral practice to encourage as much as possible participation
in the Eucharist in one of the communities within the Diocese,
even where that requires a certain amount of sacrifice.

Secondly, it is useful to underline for the faithful the
propaedeutic character of every Sunday celebration "in the
absence of a priest". Wherever a certain amount of mobility is
not possible, the appropriateness of these assemblies will be
seen in their capacity to accentuate in the people the ardent
desire for the Eucharist.

The sacrifices and even heroism of not a few persecuted
Christians in order to live the Eucharist shows how its absence
cannot ever be filled by other forms of worship, however
significant. We want, in this respect, to honour the
extraordinary Eucharistic experience of our mourned Cardinal Van
Thuan during his imprisonment.

a2. 'Viri probati'?

To overcome the lack of priests, some, guided by the
principle of salus animarum suprema lex, advance the
request for the ordination of married faithful of proven faith
and virtue, the so-called viri probati. The request is
often accompanied by the positive recognition of the validity of
the age-old discipline of priestly celibacy. But this law should
not, they affirm, impede the Church from being equipped with an
adequate number of ordained ministers, when the scarcity of
candidates to the celibate priesthood is assuming extremely
grave proportions.

It is superfluous to reiterate in this context the profound
theological motives which have led the Latin Church to unite the
conferring of Ministerial Priesthood to the charism of celibacy.
Rather, the question imposes itself: is this choice and this
practice pastorally valid, even in extreme cases such as those
mentioned above?

It seems reasonable to answer positively. Being intimately
tied to the Eucharist, ordained priesthood participates in its
nature of a gift and cannot be the object of a right. If it is a
gift, ordained priesthood asks to be constantly requested. It
has become very difficult to establish the ideal number of
priests in the Church, from the aspect that this is not a
"business" which should be equipped with a determined quota of
"team managers!".

In practical terms, the urgency, which cannot be postponed,
of the salus animarum urges us to strongly reiterate,
especially in this See, the responsibility each particular
Church has with regard to the universal Church, and for that
reason also to the other particular Churches. Therefore, the
proposals made in this Synodal Assembly to identify the criteria
for an adequate distribution of clergy in the world will be very
useful. In this area the path to be walked seems as yet very
long.

Perhaps its is a good idea to remember that all throughout
history, Providence has sustained the prophetic and educational
value of celibacy, asking also for a special availability for
the ministry of priesthood to the realities of consecrated life,
maintaining the respect for their charism and history. One can
quote here the practice of the ordination of monks in the
Oriental Church and within the Benedictine Tradition.70

2. Adoration

The essential character of Eucharist as gift permits us to
overcome, based on an attentive consideration of the rite of
Mass in its nature of liturgical action, the improper
contraposition, inherited in some way from modern times, between
the Eucharist as food to be eaten (banquet) and Eucharist as
divine presence to be adored.

If it is true that in the first millennium Eucharistic
Adoration was not expressed in any of the forms we now know, one
should affirm, however, that from the beginning, it has been
very present in and to the consciousness of the People of God.
The second millennium later made its value explicit, not without
drawing benefit from the controversy regarding the Real Presence
in Medieval times and from that of the permanence of Christ in
the Eucharistic species with the Reformation.

During the Last Supper, the participants' awareness of the
concrete presence of Christ asking for adoration, identified in
the consecrated bread and wine (cf. Mk 14:22-24; Mt 26:26-28; I
Cor 11:24-25; Lk 22:19-20), is imposing. It is therefore
undeniable that the practice of Eucharistic Adoration, just as
is done today in the Latin Church, has made more evident a fact
that belongs to the essence of faith in the Eucharistic mystery.71

To make eating and adoring alternative activities means not
taking into account the integral and articulated unity of the
Eucharistic mystery.72 The
Eucharistic meal is not just a meal shared together but the gift
that Christ gives of himself. To participate in this gift by
eating his Body already implies being prostrated with faith in
adoration.73 In that way, the
Adoration of the Most Holy Sacrament is totally one with the
celebration from which it comes and towards which it points.74
"In the Eucharist, adoration must become union".75
This full consciousness of the value of Adoration must be
expressed even in the artistic-architectural relevance owed to
the custody of the Most Holy Eucharist in our churches.76

Obviously, however, one must decisively insist that both the
consuming of the Eucharist and Eucharistic Adoration are always
ecclesial acts." They cannot be conceived as an individual
practice of piety. To adore Christ during Consecration and
Communion and to adore him present in the Tabernacle implies to
recognize oneself and to act as a member of his Ecclesial Body.
In that way, the Eucharist is not an encounter that is finished
in the act of consuming, but is a permanent encounter, just as
the continuous coming of the Lord in his Church is also
permanent in virtue of the Eucharistic presence.78

In light of the ecclesial nature of Adoration, it is better
understood why Christian piety has also united "reparation" for
the sins of the world to Eucharistic Adoration: before the Lord,
as members of his Body, we are all responsible for one another.79

3. Attitude of confession, penance

To receive the gift of the Body and Blood of the Lord Jesus
in the Eucharistic celebration is the culminating expression of
the following of Christ for those who consider themselves
disciples and allow themselves to be introduced into communion
with him.

The radical difference between he who gives himself and the
one who receives the gift, well documented from the
disproportion between the immeasurable richness of the Paschal
Event and the extreme poverty of the species of bread and wine,
opens the faithful t an awareness of the mysterium tremendum
of the Eucharist. One cannot approach it without perceiving
one's own unworthiness and preparing oneself by asking for the
forgiveness of one sins.80

In this way, not only the meaning the Penitential Act of the
Introductory Rites emerges, made solemn in particular cases by
the aspersion with holy water which recalls Baptism, but above
the intrinsic relationship between the Eucharist and the
Sacrament of Reconciliation.81

When the faithful, incorporated in Christ through Baptism,
commit a mortal sin, they separate themselves from communion
with Christ and his Church' whose fullest expression is
sacrament Communion.82 However,
the Merciful Father does not abandon them, but through the
medicine that Jesus himself desired,83
invites them to the free, personal and humble confession of the
faults in order to welcome them once again in an even more
intense embrace  through contrition, confession of sins,
absolution by the minister, who so here acts in persona
Christi capiti, and penance84
 in communion with the One who extends himself to brothers and
sisters. For this reason, adequate Eucharistic catechesis can
never be separated from the proposal of penitential journey (cf.
I Cor 11:27-29).85

The venerable practice of the Eucharistic fast has its roots
in the attitude of confession, to which it will be useful in
this Assembly to dedicate some reflection.

a. Remarried, divorced persons and Eucharistic Communion

From this viewpoint, particular attention must be given to
the special way that those who are divorced and remarried are
called to live their ecclesial communion.

No one can ignore the divorced and remarried's widespread
tendency to Eucharistic Communion, beyond what the teaching of
the Church indicates.

It is necessary to establish that at the basis of this
tendency is not only superficiality. Beyond the considerably
diverse situations of the various continents, it should be
recognized that  especially
in countries of a long Christian tradition
 there are more than a few
baptized persons have been united in sacramental Matrimony
through a mechanical acceptance of tradition. Many of these get
divorced and remarried. Following the practice of Christian
life, some of these manifest serious unease, and at times
considerable suffering, when faced with the fact that the union
after the marriage blocks their full participation in
sacramental Reconciliation and Eucharistic Communion.

Some important doctrinal and pastoral directives have been
offered by Familiaris Consortio and by other Documents.86
Those divorced and remarried need to be supported by the whole
Christian community in the knowledge that they are not excluded
from ecclesial communion. Their participation the Eucharistic
celebration permits, in every case, that spiritual communion, if
correctly lived, which mirrors the sacrifice of Jesus Christ
himself.

On the other hand, the teaching of the Magisterium on this
theme is not only prone to avoid the spreading of a mentality
contrary to the indissolubility of Marriage and the scandalizing
of the People of God. Instead, it highlights the recognition of
the objective bond that unites the Sacrament of the Eucharist
with the entire life of the Christian, and in particular, with
the Sacrament of Marriage.87

In fact, the unity of the Church, which is always a gift of
her Spouse, continuously springs forth from the Eucharist (cf. I
Cor 10:17). Therefore, in Christian Matrimony, due to the
sacramental gift of the Spirit, the conjugal bond in its public,
faithful, indissoluble and fruitful nature is intrinsically
connected to Eucharistic unity between Christ the Bridegroom and
the Church as Bride (cf. Eph 5:31-32).88
In this way, the mutual consent that husband and wife exchange
in Christ and which makes them a community of conjugal life and
love has, so to speak, a Eucharistic form.

During the present Assembly we must further delve into and
pay great attention to the complex and very diverse cases, the
objective ways to verify the hypothesis of nullity of canonical
Marriage; verification that, to respect the public, ecclesial
and social nature of marital consent, must in turn be imbued
with a public, ecclesial and social character." Therefore, the
recognition of marital nullity must imply an objective
requirement that cannot be reduced to the spouses' individual
consciences, not even when supported by the opinion of an
illumined spiritual guide.

Because of this, however, we must continue in the work of
rethinking the nature and the actions of ecclesiastic tribunals,
that they may be more and more an expression of the normal
pastoral life of the local Church.90
Beyond the continuous vigilance on times and costs, one should
consider the juridical figures and procedures, simplified and
more efficiently responding to pastoral care. There is no lack
of significant experiences in regard to this in the various
Dioceses. The Synod Fathers in this same Assembly will have the
opportunity to make others known.

In any case, ordinary pastoral action in remote, proximate
and immediate preparation of fianc้s to Christian Matrimony
remains decisive, as well as the daily accompaniment of family
life within the grand ecclesial home. Finally, what is
particularly important is the appreciation of and care for the
many initiatives aimed at helping those divorced and remarried
to live serenely within the Christian community, the sacrifice
objectively required by their condition.

4. 'Ite, missa est'

The Eucharist is food viatorum for the faithful on the
path in history towards eternal life. This is a truth that, in a
particular way, the liturgical tradition of the Orthodox
Churches has unceasingly reproposed.91
The act of praise and grace that is effected in the
Eucharistic celebration, the sacramental memorial of Christ's
Passover, fills the faithful with singular gratitude. This is
not only manifested in the devout "giving thanks" after
Communion, which ecclesial practice recommends be done in
silence and which can be accompanied by a meditative song, but
is fully expressed in the mandate to extend this communion to
the whole human family. This missionary outcome of the
Eucharistic celebration does not have first and foremost the
character of a "duty", but that of a free witness to the
progressive transformation of one's whole existence made
possible by the sacramental gift. welcomed by human freedom. for
all people. 92

Thus, the witness ends up coinciding with that logike latreia
by which communion with Christ invests all the circumstances and
relationships that are established in the ambit of human
existence. In the Church's past and present life, an emblematic
figure of such a witness is that of the martyr, by pure grace,
makes of the Eucharistic giving of his life an offering pleasing
to the Father.

In this way and naturally do, the Eucharist touches and
transforms personal, communal and social history. It is of this
that the evangelizing mission of the Church primarily consists.93

II. 'Ars celebrandi' and 'actuosa, participatio'

From this vision centred on the Eucharist as an ecclesial
action expressed in the unity of the Eucharistic rite  the
heart of which is the liturgy of the Word intrinsically ordered
to the Eucharistic one,94 a
gift welcomed in a spirit of adoration which in turn requires an
attitude of confession and leads to mission
 emerges a fact that merits
being decisively emphasized.

To affirm that the Eucharist is the source and summit of the
life and mission of the Church implies above all to recognize
the necessary obedience of the Church herself towards the
Eucharistic Sacrament. There the primacy of the traditio
over the receptio is expressed: in the Last Supper the
initiative belongs to Jesus, who hands himself over to his own;
in the passage from the Supper to the ecclesial liturgy, Paul
tells us that he is handing on what he received (cf. I Cor
11:23); in differentiating the rites and in the progression of
liturgical reform, the guiding criterion is always that of the
primacy of the traditio.95
For this reason in every Eucharistic celebration the community
lives the experience that the apostles already had at the Last
Supper: the faithful are called to receive the One who
gives himself.

This constitutive element of the Eucharistic action leads to
a decisive pastoral consequence: the need to overcome all
dualism between the ars celebrandi and the actuosa
participatio. The conscious, active and fruitful
participation of the People of God96  above all on the
occasion of the Sunday precept 
coincides in truth with an adequate celebration of the
holy mysteries. Once again the proper characteristic of the
Eucharist as gift comes to the fore. If and when the art of the
celebration is objectively taken care of, participation in it
can become plena, conscia ed ortuosa.97
It is a question of obeying the Eucharistic rite in its
extraordinary completeness, recognizing its canonical and
constitutive strength from the moment that, not incidentally, it
has assured the existence of the Holy Church of God for 2,000
years.

With regard to the various cultural sensitivities, this
criterion should direct the manner in which one solicits the
participation of all the faithful in the rite itself. In order
not to limit oneself to the mere repetition of formula and
gestures, this asks for the conscious self-offering of each of
the faithful who actualize in this way the baptismal priesthood
of the People of God. In this context one can also appreciate
the enormous utility of the liturgical norms that the Holy See,
the Episcopal Conferences and the Ordinaries make available to
the Churches.

In this framework all ministers and offices connected to the
liturgical rite are included and experienced. Their function is
not that of gratifying whoever carries them out, as an
inappropriate and actually quite exterior idea of the active
participation of the faithful suggests. Their essential action
has as its aim to assure the beauty and objective dignity of the
celebration for the whole Assembly.98

Without being able to treat the important specific problems,
it will be useful in this report to recall that art also, places
at the service of the Eucharistic action
 especially with regards to
the vestments, altar cloths and holy vessels99, as also song and music,
receive in their turn full light from the ars celebrandi.
They contribute to the actuoso participatio if they
respect this objective ars celebrandi.100

CHAPTER THREE

Anthropological, cosmological and social dimensions of the
Eucharist

I. Two Premises

The consideration of the Eucharistic rite as a sacramental
action that is capable by itself of presenting the Eucharist as
source and summit of the life and mission of the Church, would
not be complete if one did not show its transforming strength in
the personal and communal life of the faithful and, through
that, its fruitfulness towards the family of humanity and all
peoples. In other words, the Eucharist, conferring Eucharistic
form on human existence, influences not only individuals and
Ecclesial Communities, but through these also society, cultures,
as well as determining the interaction of human beings with the
universe.

1. Eucharist and evangelization

The uniqueness of the Paschal event, which is the origin of
the intrinsic unity of Eucharist and Church documented in the
one act of worship that is the Eucharistic rite, engenders as
well the profound unity between the life and mission of the
Christian and that of the whole Church. The common witness of
the free and satisfying encounter with Christ flows into the
proclamation and invitation to the entire human family,
excluding no one, to take part in the life of the Christian
community. Pursuing in the community an education in
gratuitousness, in thinking like Christ and in universality,
Christians are driven to commit themselves together with all
human beings on a cultural, ecological and social level.

Conceived in that way, the daily life of the individual
Christian (Eucharistic spirituality), always both personal and
communitarian, puts into practice in a tangible way the
evangelization and new evangelization in which human
promotion is always implied.

2. Eucharist, intercultural nature and inculturation

Evangelization, by the nature of man and through the force of
the dynamism of the Incarnation, is always historically situated
and called to interact with the most diverse cultures. One can
well understand, however, the care that, after the Second
Vatican Council, has been given by the various Churches to the
process of inculturation of the liturgical rites. This urgency
has been reiterated by the Magisterium many times in the last
decades.101 It is worthwhile
remembering that the decisive condition for the necessary
development of this important process, which requires by its
very nature to be submitted to constant verification, is the
previous recognition of the original intercultural nature of the
event celebrated.

The Eucharistic celebration represents the Paschal event
which itself puts the conditions for its communicability to all
human cultures. This is made possible by the universal
singularity of the Person and the story of Jesus Christ, who
assumes the entire human condition precisely through the
Incarnation.

In order to express the intercultural dimension of the
Eucharist it is valuable - especially on occasions of large
international celebrations or in churches where there is a
relevant number of foreign visitors - to use the Latin language.

With regard to this perspective, the use of the vernacular
and the considered use of particular expressive forms in the
rites, temples, decor and songs to celebrate the Eucharistic
action, which should always and in every latitude remain the
unique Eucharist instituted by Christ,102
can become fruitful and paradigmatic expressions of the need for
inculturation in order to evangelize.103

If a condition for inculturation is the recognition of the
intercultural nature of the mystery celebrated, then by its very
nature every inculturation implies a continuous evangelization
of the culture itself. This includes an unavoidable "critical"
application towards the culture which a specific Christian
community finds itself living and celebrating.

Interreligious dialogue also finds space in the balanced link
between evangelization and inculturation assured by the very
nature of the Eucharist.104 It
is indeed an intrinsic moment of the faith of the Christian
community, which is decisive in a missionary context and
especially in the populated Asian Continent. In this context, it
is advisable look with attention at the Orient Churches to draw
profit from their experience.

II. Anthropological Dimension the Eucharist

If the Eucharist is the gift of the sacramental encounter
between humanity and the God of Jesus Christ who makes us "truly
free" (Jn 8:36), then such an event has by its very nature a
fundamental anthropological dimension.

The transformation of existence by the work of the
Eucharistic action documented above all in the tension of
Christians in the following of Christ. Many times Paul affirms
that the existence of the new creature unfolds entirely in
Christ (cf. Rom 6:11; Gal 2:20).105
In communion with the Body and Blood of Christ, the Deus
Trinitas comes to encounter human beings. His irruption into
daily life offers human beings the possibility of not enclosing
themselves in their own finiteness and sin.

This personal gift naturally extends itself in communion
among Christians: the unity of the Church is, as we already
recalled, the res of the Sacrament. As the new Testament
narrations of the first community document, the sacramental
genesis assures the objectivity of communion that tends to
permeate all the spiritual and material aspects of Christian
existence (cf. Acts 2:42-44; 4:32-33).106

Doctrine, morals, ascesis and spirituality are not
expressions of a generic religiosity, but rather, due to their
Eucharistic root, they become unified articulations of the
achievement of God's plan for every person and all of history:
"Make of Christ the heart of the world".107
In this way, all life is conceived as vocation, and this agrees
with that imitatio Christi witnessed through the ages by
the saints in the different states of life. Christian existence
follows the Master's footprints, tending to eternity and at the
same time responsibly and constructively attentive to every
historical implication.108

Proclamation and witness, catechesis, personal and
communitarian Christian education, sharing with man and his
expressions made of sentiments, of work and of rest, to the
point of confronting the burning anthropological questions that
today shake the humanum (love marriage, family, life,
sickness, death), are for the Christian objectively implied
aspects of the Sunday Eucharistic celebration.

III. Cosmological dimension of the Eucharist

In the Eucharistic action, which in the last instance rests
on the unity in Christ Jesus of priest, victim and altar, the
new creature is led to continuously renew his relationship with
matter and with the universe.109 St. Paul emphasizes the relationship between the fruitful
labour of the new creature and that of the new creation (cf. Rom
8:19-23; II Cor 5:17). Anthropological labour and cosmological
labour are united in the ever-present eschatological
perspective. It is important to underline the cosmological
dimension of the Eucharist as documented from ancient times by
the very orientation of the Christian temple.

The Eucharistic form of existence allows us to avoid
at its root, at least in principle, two serious risks that would
heavily compromise the human-cosmos relationship.

On the one hand is that of an exaggerated anthropocentrism
which makes of man the absolute owner of creation. In the
presentation of the gifts (fruit of the earth and work of human
labour: the bread and wine to which water is united), it is
explicitly expressed that the protagonists of the man-creation
relationship are not only two, the community of men and the
universe, but three. Confirming what is already contained in the
second account of creation (cf. Gn 2:4-25), there is a Third who
puts human beings and creation into relationship with each
other: God, who places man in the "garden" from the beginning,
so that he would cultivate and take care of it. Man and the
universe are joined in the sole historia salutis guided
by God. In redemption, Christ opens the perspective of the final
glorification of humanity and of the universe, definitively
redimensioning every anthropocentric pretension.

On the other hand, the balanced relationship between God,
humanity and the universe 
made explicit by the Eucharist 
excludes any biocentrism or ecocentrism which would lead
to eliminating the ontological and axiological difference
between man and all other living beings.110

The cosmological dimension of the Eucharist finds a truly
significant symbol in the life of St. Francis of Assisi. The
famous Hymn to Brother Sun appears as a powerful,
poetically significant documentation of the position of the
person who lives a Eucharistically-defined existence and who,
because of this, knows how to recognize every creature in its
bond with God: "Praise to you, my Lord, with all your
creatures". The conscience of St Francis expresses an attitude
of gratitude to God for and with all things. It is
a gratitude that he learns precisely from the Eucharistic
mystery, of which in his time and not by chance he was an
admirable cantor and defender, in obedience to the decrees of
the IV Lateran Council.111

In addition, the communal dimension of Eucharistic action
allows Christians not to forget that the creation-cosmos is a
common and universal good and that commitment to the same is
extended not only to the demands of the present, but also to
those of the future. For this reason, responsibility towards
creation takes on the aspect of a caring for this
dwellingplace, which in a certain sense prolongs the
body, and should find an adequate translation at educational,
social and juridical levels which would both respect in it the
value of dwelling place and resource.112

Also, the Christian temple and in it the chapel or area
reserved for the monstrance and for adoration before the
Tabernacle, expressing the care for the abode of the Eucharistic
and ecclesial Body of Jesus Christ, can become valuable
educational resources for the ecclesial relationship between
human beings and creation.

IV. Social dimension of the Eucharist

The total gift of himself, Eucharistically assured by Christ
for the people of all time, is for the salvation of all. In this
sense the Eucharist is for the world. The Synoptic Gospels
remind us in the decisive parable about the good wheat and the
darnel that the commitment to follow Christ has as its field the
world (cf. Mt 13:38). It becomes quite clear how the Eucharist
possesses an intrinsic social dimension, inseparable from the
cosmological and anthropological ones.

The history of the Church, rich in works of charity and
creative yeast for relevant civil and political institutions,
documents it with an abundance of elements. In the work of these
days, the occasion to have further confirmation of it from the
particular Churches here represented will not be lacking.

Charity is essentially Eucharistic,113
just as the Eucharist is charity.114 The alms that the faithful give on the occasion of the
Sunday celebration indicate with clarity the importance of this
bond.

Among the innumerable witnesses of holiness linked to charity
we want to remember that of Bl. Teresa of Calcutta. Her charism,
deeply marked by the relationship with the Eucharistic
Sacrament, knew how to recognize the love of Christ as an
inextinguishable source of sharing towards the poorest and most
abandoned and dying.

In today's framework, marked by the violent transition from
modernity to a new cultural and geopolitical configuration
(post-modernity?), social urgencies which Christians who live
their own existence in a Eucharistic form should face appear
particularly differentiated and acute. Globalization, social
networks, the new horizons opened by biotechnology and the
process of inevitable fusing of different peoples and cultures,
unfortunately accompanied by wars, terrorism and inhuman
violence, make the urgency of social justice and peace an
imperative.

The situation of poverty and often that of endemic hardship,
to which a large portion of the population of the globe,
especially in Africa, is condemned, constitutes a wound which
inescapably judges the authenticity with which Christians of
every latitude live the Eucharist. To gather every Sunday,
anywhere on earth, to share part of the same Body and the same
Blood of Christ imposes the duty of a tenacious battle against
all forms of marginalization and economic, social and political
injustice which our brothers and sisters, especially women and
children, are experiencing. The forms of this battle demand
adequate criteria derived from the proportional relationship
between charity and justice, which the Eucharist has demanded as
necessary for life in common since apostolic times (cf. I Cor
11:17-22; Jas 2:1-6).

The Christian community, conscious of its unique nature,
should continue with appropriate analysis and put into place the
relevant distinctions, in order to bring about the adequate
means to confront an evil which today has taken on worldwide
dimensions and more than ever cries out for revenge in the
presence of God (cf. Gn 4:10).

It would seem evident that dealing with such a relevant
question as that of social justice cannot be separated from the
untiring duty of seeking peace. As well as this, the
relationship of peace to the Eucharist, well expressed in the
Latin rite of the fraternal embrace which precedes Communion, is
based on the unbreakable conviction that "Christ is our peace"
(Eph 2:14).

The Eucharistic root of the Christian's work for peace will
keep him safe from two grave temptations in this respect:
utopic pacifism, on the one hand, and that of a type of
Realpolitik on the other, which considers war inevitable.
Peace, instead, is a serious and difficult task which is ever
before us and must be patiently pursued every day in our own
persons and in all our relationships, starting with those of the
family and passion through the intermediate communities to
finally reach international relationships.

These decisive social implications of Eucharistic action
require the contribution by Christians for the edification of a
civil society in the diverse cultural areas of humanity. Based
on the principles of solidarity and subsidiarity, constitutive
of the social teaching of the Church, Christians promote a civil
society based on dignity and personal rights; first of all, the
right to religious freedom, and those of all intermediate
bodies, in particular the family.

In the same perspective, Christians contribute, with all men
and women of good will and in respect for what is for the most
part the pluralistic nature of society, to the promotion of
state and international institutions that favour good
government. Beyond the promotion and regulation of a good life
at the level of individual nations, these should come together
to what is by now an urgent necessity to build a new world order
based on rules that are shared and binding, that guarantee all
peoples the possibility of a balanced and integral development
of natural and human resources.

CONCLUSION

Eucharistic existence in contemporary trials

I. Summary

In the encounter with freedom that liturgical action favours,
for 2,000 years the experience of amazement has been renewed for
man with particular intensity by the Eucharistic rite. In the
practice of the rite itself, in the lowering of the Son who died
on the Cross and is risen, and through the gift of the Holy
Spirit, the Father shows himself, gives himself
and expresses himself to humankind. In the eulogia and in
the Eucharist, in listening to the Word and in the consummation
of the Sacrifice, the faithful worshipper of God, after the
Confiteor, is accepted to communication with the Body that
redeems, due to the unrepeatable event of the Passover of Jesus,
and is sent forth to bear witness to the redemption of the whole
world.

The Eucharist becomes at the same time the source and summit
of the life and mission of the Church in the selfsame action in
which it is celebrated. The Paschal event, the Eucharist and the
Church thus achieve the concrete form through which the Trinity,
throughout history, encounters all men and women for their
salvation.

The marvels of divine grace are enclosed in the holy species
of bread and wine transubstantiated into the Body and Blood of
Christ. In these, the Son of God made man, dead and risen,
willingly remains given: awaiting the free involvement of man.
The Church celebrates these mysteries, is nourished by this
heavenly food and adores him, recognizing in the sacramental
Jesus the Way to Truth and Life.

Man, who by grace receives this gift, has each time a
singular experience. The loving mercy of the Trinity breaks into
the mechanical succession of the moments of his time, creating
there a beneficial discontinuity which provokes a decision.
Then, realizing the abysmal difference between the infinite
freedom of God which is given Eucharistically and the
limitation of human freedom, the faithful abandons
himself to Christ and transforms his existence into a living
offering.

This takes on a true and personal Eucharistic form on
a personal and social level. The physiognomy of the Christian
and the community of the faithful live by this Eucharistic form,
which progressively transforms the rhythms of personal existence
while contributing to the building up of a good life even on a
social level. Birth, growing up, being educated, loving
suffering and dying are signed by the Eucharistic power
articulated in the whole seven-day sacramental, and because of
the Eucharist, the life of Christians and of the communities
benefits from receiving the gifts of the Spirit, from the
increase in virtues, from the discovery that God's Commandments
authentically obeyed are the fulfilment of love.

The relationship of the redeemed man with the universe is
deeply renewed while with ever-increasing energy, Christians are
urged towards a radical commitment to social justice and the
achievement of peace.

Above all in these uniquely trouble times in which all
cultural areas in the world find themselves, the Christian,
living his own communitarian existence in a Eucharistic form,
becomes a tireless proclaimer and witness of Jesus Christ and of
his Gospel in all fields of human existence: from the local
district to the school, to the workplace, to the world of
culture, of economics, of politics, of social communications,
etc.

Christian communities, eucharistically founded, become the
place where every individual can experience that the following
of Christ opens to eternal life, offering, already from within
history, the hundredfold (cf. Mt 19:29). Women and men
from all classes, races and cultures may at any time in their
lives meet other men and women, Christians, who due to their
Eucharistic existence propose themselves as discreet companion
on a path of freedom.

II. A Final Wish

This Eucharistic form of the personality and of the Christian
community not a utopia. It already lives fully in Mary, the
Eucharistic woman. By her fiat Mary is the symbol of the
Eucharistic gift of self and of the immaculate Church.115

The Fathers and the Magisterium the Church have always
stressed the inseparable relationship between Mary and the
Church. Pope John Paul II, defining her as the Eucharistic
woman,116 called by name the
form of this relationship. In fact, this flourishes in the
Mother's unique participation in the fulfilled offering of self
made by the Son.

We ask the Immaculate Virgin and the Saints that the works of
this Synodal Assembly may be carried out in the beneficial
horizon of this Eucharist form.

NOTES

1 John Paul II, Ecclesia
de Eucharistia, n. 6.

2 Cf. ibid., nn. 5-6.

3 Cf. John Paul II,
Redemptoris Hominis, n. 10.

4 John Paul II, Ecclesia
de Eucharistia, n. 6: "I would like to rekindle this
Eucharistic amazement by the present Encyclical Letter, in
continuity with the Jubilee heritage".

5 Cf. Missale Romanum,
Oratio Post Communionem, I Dominica Adventus.

6Gaudium et Spes, n.
22.

7 Cf. ibid., n. 14.

8 Thomas reminds us that
with Baptism man is regenerated in Christ (regeneratur inChristo), while with the Eucharist man perfects his union
with Christ (perficitur in unione adChristum).
"This is why while Baptism is called 'the sacrament of faith' (sacramentumfidei), which is the foundation of spiritual life; the
Eucharist is called 'the sacrament of charity' (sacramentum
caritatis), which is the 'perfect tie' (vinculum
perfectionis), according to St. Paul (Col 3:14)", Thomas,
Summa Theologiae III, q. 73, a. 3.

9 Cf. Augustine, Comment
on the Gospel according to Saint John 69, 2.

10 "Where is the 'People of
God' spoken of so much, and spoken of today; where? This suigeneris ethnic entity that distinguishes and qualifies
itself by its religious and messianic characteristics (priestly
and prophetic, if you wish), where everything converges upon
Christ, as its central focus, and all that derives from Christ?
How is it paged? How is it characterized? How is it organized?
How does it practice its ideal and tonic mission in society, in
which it is immersed? Well, we know that the People of God now,
historically, has a name much more familiar to all; it is the
Church", Paul VI, General Audience, 23 July 1975.

11 John Paul II, Ecclesia
de Eucharistia, n. 5.

12 "In the Eucharist the
entire mystery of our salvation is summarized (totum
mysteriumnostrae salutis comprehenditur)", Thomas,
Summa Theologiae III, q. 83, a. 4. "The Eucharist is the
greatest of all the marvels made by Christ, the admirable
documentation of his immense love for men", Thomas, Opusc.
57, on the Feast day of Corpus Domini.

13 "Reunited on the day of
the Lord, Sunday, having broken the bread and given grace, after
having confessed your sins, that your sacrifice may be pure",
Didach่ 14, 1. Also cf. Justinian, I Apologia 67.

14Sacrosanctum Concilium,
n. 9.

15Dei Verbum, n. 4:
"Then, after speaking in many and varied ways through the
prophets, 'now at last in these days God has spoken to us in his
Son' (Heb 1:1-2). For he sent his Son, the eternal Word, who
enlightens all men, so that he might dwell among men and tell
them of the innermost being of God (cf. Jn 1:1-18). Jesus
Christ, therefore, the Word made flesh, was sent as 'a man to
men'. He 'speaks the words of God' (Jn 3:34), and completes the
work of salvation which his Father gave him to do (cf. Jn 5:36;
Rv 17:4). To see Jesus is to see his Father (Jn 14:9). For this
reason Jesus perfected revelation by fulfilling it through his
whole work of making himself present and manifesting himself:
through his words and deeds, his signs and wonders, but
especially through his death and glorious Resurrection from the
dead and final sending of the Spirit of truth. Moreover, he
confirmed with divine testimony what revelation proclaimed, that
God is with us to free us from the darkness of sin and death,
and to raise us up to life eternal".

18 John Paul II, Fides et
Ratio, n. 13: "In a sense, then, we return to the
sacramental character of Revelation and especially to the sign
of the Eucharist, in which the indissoluble unity between the
signifier and signified makes it possible to grasp the depths of
the mystery. In the Eucharist, Christ is truly present and
alive, working through his Spirit; yet, as St Thomas said so
well, 'What you neither see nor grasp, faith confirms for you,
leaving nature far behind; a sign it is that now appears, hiding
in mystery realities sublime'. He is echoed by the philosopher
Pascal: 'Just as Jesus Christ went unrecognized among men, so
does his truth appear without external difference among common
modes of thought. So too does the Eucharist remain among common
bread'".

19 Cf. Instrumentum
laboris. n. 25.

20 "Together with the
disciples he celebrated the Passover of Israel, the memorial of
God's liberating action that led Israel from slavery to
freedom", Benedict XVI, Homily, Holy Mass during the
XX World Youth Day at Marienfeld, 21 August 2005.

25 "In fact, leading a life
based on the sacraments and animated by the common priesthood
means in the first place that Christians desire God to act in
them in order to enable them to attain, in the Spirit, 'the
fullness of Christ himself' (Eph 4:13). God, on his part, does
not touch them only through events and by this inner grace; he
also acts in them with greater certainty and power through the
sacraments. The sacraments give the lives of Christians
sacramental style. Now, of all the sacraments it is the Holy
Eucharist that brings to fullness their initiation as Christians
and confers upon the exercise of the common priesthood that
sacramental and ecclesial form that links it  as we mentioned
before to the exercise of
the ministerial priesthood. In this way Eucharistic worship is
the centre and goal of all sacramental life (cf. AG, nn.
9 and 13; PO, n. 5)", John Paul II, Dominicae Cenae,
n. 7.

26 Eucharistic Prayer II.

27 "You give the Church of
Christ the celebration of the ineffable mysteries in which our
smallness as mortal creatures is subliminated in an eternal
relationship, and our existence in time begins to flourish in a
life without end", Preface to the XIX Week Per Annum
of the Ambrosian Missal.

28 Cf. Catechism of the
Catholic Church, nn. 1402-1405.

29 Eucharistic Prayer I:
"Almighty God, we pray that your angel may take this sacrifice
to your altar in heaven. Then, as we receive from this altar the
sacred Body and Blood of your Son, let us be filled with every
grace and blessing". Also cf. Sacrosanctum Concilium, n.
8.

35 'If you do not eat', he
says, 'the flesh of the Son of man and drink his blood, you have
no life in you' (Jn 6:53). This would seem like ordering a crime
or a repugnant act. In reality, instead it is a figurative
expression with which one is ordered to participate in the
passion of the Lord", Augustine, Christian Doctrine, III,
16, 24.

36 "Then comes the Holy
Spirit, the fire after the water, and thus you become bread,
that is, the body of Christ", Augustine, Speeches, 227,
1. "This is the sacrifice of Christians: we, being many, are one
body in Christ. And this also is the sacrifice which the Church
continually celebrates in the sacrament of the altar, known to
the faithful, in which she teaches that she herself is offered
in the offering she makes to God", Augustine, City of God,
X, 6.

37 The Eucharist becomes the
image of the unity of the Church just as the bread is made up of
many grains, which milled together, form one thing, cf.
Didach่, 9, 4;
Augustine, Comment on the Gospel according to Saint John, 26,
17.

39
"The virtue of this bread is unity, in the sense that,
transformed into the Body of Christ, having become its members,
we are what we receive. Then this will truly be our daily
bread", Augustine, Speeches, 57, 7, 7.

40 Congregation for Divine
Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, RedemptionisSacramentum, 25 March 2004, nn. 19-25.

45 Apart from the important
invitation of Unitatis Redintegratio, 22, we are limited
to remembering the main Documents from the various
interconfessional dialogues on the Eucharist. Cf. Mixed
International Commission for the Theological Dialogue between
the Roman Catholic Church and the Orthodox Church, The
mystery of the Church and the Eucharist in light of the mystery
of the Holy Trinity, Munich, 30 June-6 July 1982, in
Enchiridion Oecumenicum 1/2183-2197; Anglican-Roman Catholic
International Commission, Doctrine on the Eucharist:
Declaration of Windsor 1971, in Enchiridion
Oecumenicum 1/16-28; Anglican Consultative
Council-Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity, The
Church as communion, Joint Declaration 1990, in
EnchiridionOecumenicum 3/38-106; Clarifications
of Certain Aspects of the Agreed Statements on Eucharist and
Ministry of the First Anglican-Roman Catholic International
Commission, together with a Letter front Cardinal Edward
Idris Cassidy, President of the Pontifical Council for
Promoting Christian Unity 1993, in Enchiridion
Oecumenicum 3/107-124; Clarifications of Certain Aspects
of the AgreedStatements on the Eucharist and Ministry of
the First Anglican-Roman Catholic International Commission,
together with a Letter front Cardinal Edward Idris
Cassidy, President of the Pontifical Council for
Promoting Christian Unity, Declaration by the Co-Presidents,
1994 Enchiridion Oecumenicum 3/305-314; Clarifications
of Certain Aspects of the Agreed Statements on Eucharist and
Ministry of the First AnglicanRoman Catholic
International Commission, together with a Letter from
CardinalEdward Idris Cassidy, President of
Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity, Letter by
Card. Cassidy to the Co-Presidents of the ARCIC II, 1994, in
EnchiridionOecumenicum 3/315- 317; Gemeinsame
rmisch-katholische/evangelisch-lutherischeKommision, Das Herrenmahl 1978, in Enchiridion
Oecumenicum 1/1207-1307; Mixed Commission on Reformed Roman
Catholic studies, Official report on the dialogue (1979-1977) on
The Presence of Christ in the Church and in the world,
Rome, March 1977, in Enchiridion Oecumenicum 1/2383-2408;
Faith Commission and Constitution of the Ecumenical Council of
Churches, One Baptism, one Eucharist and a Mutually
Recognized Ministry. Three agreed statements, Accra,
23 July-5 August 1974, in Enchiridion Oecumenicum
1/2860-3031; Id., Baptism, Eucharist and Ministry
(Document of Lima), in Enchiridion Oecumenicum
1/3032-3181; Secretariat for the Union of Christians, "Baptism,
Eucharist and Ministry", Faith and Order Paper, n.111 (BEM).
A Catholic Response, 21 July 1987, in Enchiridion
Vaticanum 10/1914-2078.

46 Cf. Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith,
Communionis Notio, 28 May 1992, n. 17.

47 "Even though we may not yet agree on the issue
of the interpretation and importance of the Petrine Ministry, we
are nonetheless together in the apostolic succession, we are
deeply united with one another through episcopal ministry and
through the sacrament of priesthood, and together profess the
faith of the Apostles as it is given to us in Scripture and as
it was interpreted at the great Councils. At this time in a
world full of skepticism and doubt but also rich in the desire
for God, let us recognize anew our common mission to witness to
Christ the Lord together, and on the basis of that unity which
has a ready been given to us, to help the world in order that it
may believe. And let us implore the Lord with all our hearts to
guide us to full unity so that the splendour of the truth, which
alone can create unity, may once again become visible in the
world", Benedict XVI, Homily for the Solemnity of Sts. Peter
and Paul, 29 June 2005.

48 Vatican Council II teaches: "This 'communicatio'
is governed by two principles: bearing witness to the unity of
the Church; the sharing in the means of grace. Witness to the
unity of the Church very generally forbids common worship to
Christians but the grace to be had from it sometimes commends
this practice", Unitatis Redintegratio, n. 8. Also
cf.: Orientalium Ecclesiarum, nn. 26-29; Secretariatus
ad christianorum unitatem fovendam, Directorium ad ea quae a
Concilio Vaticano II de re oecumenica promulgata sunt exsequenda,
Pars prima Ad totam Ecclesiam, 14 May 1967; Pars altera
Spiritus Domini, 16 April 1970; Instructio in quibus
rerum circumstantiis de peculiaribus casibus admittendi alios
christianos ad communionem eucharisticam in Ecclesia cattolica,
1 June 1972; Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity,
Directory for the application of the principles and norms on
Ecumenism III, 25 March 1993; John Paul II, Ecclesia de
Eucharist, nn. 43-46.

49Catechism of the Catholic Church, n.
1327: "In brief, the Eucharist is the sum and summary of our
faith: 'Our way of thinking is attuned to the Eucharist, and the
Eucharist in turn confirms our way of thinking' (St Irenaeus of
Lyons, Adversus Haereses, 4, 18, 5)".

50 Cf. John Paul II, Ecclesia de Eucharistia,
n. 44.

51 Cf. Codex Iuris Canonici 844; Codex
Canonum Ecclesiarum Orientalium 671; Pontifical Council for
Promoting Christian Unity, Directory for the application of
the principles and norms on Ecumenism, nn. 123-125, 130-132.
"In this case, in fact, the intention is to meet a grave
spiritual need for the eternal salvation of an individual
believer, not to bring about an intercommunion which remains
impossible until the visible bonds of ecclesial communion are
fully re-established", John Paul II, Ecclesia de Eucharistia,
n. 45.

52 Cf. John Paul II, Ut Unum Sint, n. 46.

53Sacrosanctum Concilium, n. 56: "The two
parts which, in a certain sense, go to make up the Mass, namely,
the liturgy of the word and the Eucharistic liturgy, are so
closely connected with each other that they form but one single
act of worship".

54 "The delicacy and extraordinary importance of
the question should give way, in the present Synodal Assembly,
to vast confrontation aimed at gathering and evaluating the most
diverse witnesses on the preparation, contents and modalities of
communication proper to the homily.

55 It is important to take note about the
relationship between Scripture and the Eucharist, the fact that
the sacramental celebration constitutes the paradigmatic context
of the reading of Holy Scripture and its interpretation.

59 "The victim to be killed is no longer chosen
from the herd of animals; sheep or goats are no longer led to
the sacred altars: the sacrifice of our days is now the Body and
Blood of the Priest himself. This has been since the time of the
Psalms as was prophesied by him: 'you are priest eternal
according to the order of Melchisedech' (Ps 109:4)", Augustine,
Speech 228/B, 1. "It was first consumed from his hands in
the mystic supper, when he took and broke the bread, and then on
the cross, when he was nailed to it. In that moment, having
received the dignity of the priesthood or, better, since he had
always had that, accomplishing it with all his works, consumed
the sacrifice that was to be offered for us", Hesychius of
Jerusalem, Comment on the Leviticus, 1, 4.

60 "Father, we celebrate the memory of Christ,
your Son. We, your people and your ministers, recall his
passion, his Resurrection from the dead, and his Ascension into
glory, and from the many gifts you have given us we offer to
you, God of glory and majesty, this holy and perfect sacrifice,
the bread of life and the cup of eternal salvation", Eucharistic
Prayer I.

67 "Truly great and ineffable is the sacrament, in
which we really eat your Flesh and truly drink your Blood:
mystery which instils us with terror and fear, whose height
defies human sight which seeks to scrutinise it. [And] the
sacrifice of our redemption, by the exercise of my ministry, be
spread by your compassion and your gift until bringing salvation
for all faithful, living and dead". John of Fecamp,
Theological Confessions, III Part, 28.

69 The Diocese, as taught by Vatican Council II,
is a "portion of the People of God which is entrusted to a
Bishop to be shepherded by him with the cooperation of the
presbytery. Thus, by adhering to its pastor and gathered
together by him through the Gospel and the Eucharist in the Holy
Spirit, it constitutes a particular Church in which the one,
holy, catholic and apostolic Church of Christ is truly present
and operative", Christus Dominus, n. 11.

70 Cf. The Rule of St Benedict, 62, 1.

71 Theological Tradition and the teaching of the
Church have made use of the category of transubstantiation
exactly in order to express this essential aspect of Eucharistic
faith more adequately. Cf. Council of Trent, Sessio XIII,
Decretum de Ss. Eucharistia, DS 1642 and 1652; Paul VI,
Mysterium Fidei, nn. 40 and 47; John Paul II, Ecclesia
de Eucharistia, n. 15.

72 Cf. 11th Ordinary General Assembly of the Synod
of Bishops, The Eucharist: Source and Summit of the Life and
Mission of the Church. Lineamenta, n. 60.

73 Based on what St Augustine can say: "No one
eats that flesh without first having adored it", adding that if
one does eat that flesh without first adoring, it is a sin. Cf.
Augustine, Expositions on the Psalms, 98, 9.

74 John Paul II, Ecclesia de Eucharistia,
n. 25: "The worship of the Eucharist outside of the Mass is of
inestimable value for the life of the Church. This worship is
strictly linked to the celebration of the Eucharistic Sacrifice.
The presence of Christ under the sacred species reserved after
Mass

a presence which lasts as long as the species of bread and of
wine remain

derives from the celebration of the sacrifice and is directed
towards communion, both sacramental and spiritual.... If in our
time Christians must be distinguished above all by the 'art of
prayer' (NMI, n. 32), how can we not feel a renewed need
to spend time in spiritual converse, in silent adoration, in
heartfelt love before Christ present in the Most Holy
Sacrament?".

75 Benedict XVI, Homily, Holy Mass during the
XX World Youth Day at Marienfeld, 21 August 2005.

78 "The Eucharistic presence of Christ

his sacramental 'I am with you'

allows the Church to more deeply discover its own mystery as
stated in all the ecclesiology of Vatican Council II, in which
'the Church is in Christ like a sacrament or as a sign and
instrument both of a very closely knit union with God and of the
unity of the whole human race' (Lumen Gentium, n. 1). As
a sacrament, the Church is a development from the Paschal
Mystery of Christ's 'departure', living by his ever new 'coming'
by the power of the Holy Spirit, within the same mission of the
Paraclete-Spirit of truth", John Paul II, Dominum et
Vivificantem, n. 63.

79 John Paul II, Mane Nobiscum Domine, n.
18: "Let us take the time to kneel before Jesus present in the
Eucharist, in order to make reparation by our faith and love for
the acts of carelessness and neglect, and even the insults which
our Saviour must endure in many parts of the world".

80 "Whoever nears the Eucharist in a state of sin
is worse than a demon", John Chrysostom, Homilies on the
Gospel according to Matthew, 82, 6. "Therefore, everywhere
the ordered development of the mystery is respected: first one
proceeds to the remedy of the wounds through the remission of
sins, then the food from the heavenly table is given in
abundance", Ambrose, Exposition on the Gospel according to
Saint Luke, 6, 71.

83 "Not all medicines are good for all
illnesses.... Similarly, Baptism and Penance are like purifying
medicines (medicinae purgativae) given to take away the
fever of sin. The Eucharist, instead, is a tonic (medicina
confortativa), which should not be conceded, if not only to
those already free of sin", Thomas, Summa Theologiae III,
q. 80, a. 4, ad 2um.

84 Cf. Catechism of the Catholic Church, nn.
1449-1460.

85 John Paul II, Redemptor Hominis, n. 20:
"Without this constant ever renewed endeavour for conversion,
partaking of the Eucharist would lack its full redeeming
effectiveness and there would be a loss or at least a weakening
of the special readiness to offer God the spiritual sacrifice in
which our sharing in the priesthood of Christ is expressed in an
essential and universal manner".

86 Cf. John Paul II, Familiaris Consortio,
n. 84; Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Letter to
the Bishops of the Catholic Church on receiving Eucharistic
communion by the divorced and remarried faithful, 14
September 1994.

87 Cf. John Paul II, Familiaris Consortio,
n. 57.

88 John Paul II, Mulieris Dignitatem, n.
26: "We find ourselves at the very heart of the Paschal Mystery,
which completely reveals the spousal love of God. Christ is the
Bridegroom because 'he has given himself': his body has been
'given', his blood has been 'poured out' (cf. Lk 22:19-20). In
this way 'he loved them to the end' (Jn 13:1). The 'sincere
gift' contained in the Sacrifice of the Cross gives definitive
prominence to the spousal meaning of God's love. As the Redeemer
of the world, Christ is the Bridegroom of the Church. The
Eucharist is the Sacrament of our Redemption. It is the
Sacrament of the Bridegroom and of the Bride. The Eucharist
makes present and realizes anew in a sacramental manner the
redemptive act of Christ, who 'creates' the Church, his body....
It is the Eucharist above all that expresses the redemptive act
of Christ the Bridegroom towards the Church, his Bride. This is
clear and unambiguous when the sacramental ministry of the
Eucharist, in which the priest acts in persona Christi,
is performed by a man". Also cf. Council of Trent, Sessio
XXII. Decretum de Missa, DS 1740; Catechism of the
Catholic Church, n. 1617.

89 Cf. Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith,
Letter to the Bishops of the Catholic Churches on receiving
the Eucharistic communion by the divorced and remarried faithful,
14 September 1994, n. 7-8.

91 After Communion, in the Byzantine Rite, the
priest implores: "O our most holy Easter, Christ, Knowledge,
Word and Power of God, let us participate with you in an ever
more perfect way, in the unending light of your Kingdom to
come", La Liturgie de sain Jean Chrysostome, Ed. des B้n้dictins
de Ch่vetogne,
19574, 60.

92 "'If you take your seat at a great man's table, take careful
note of what you have before you; if you have a big appetite put
a knife to your throat' (Prv 23:1-2). You know which is the
Great Man's table; on it is the Flesh and Blood of Christ,
whoever sits at this table will have to repay. And what does
'repay in kind' mean? This means that since Christ gave his life
for us, thus we too, to edify the people and confirm the faith,
we must give our lives for our brethren", Augustine, Comment on
the Gospel according to Saint John, 47, 2.

93 John Paul II, Mane Nobiscum Domine, nn. 24-25: "Entering
into communion with Christ in the memorial of his Pasch also
means sensing the duty to be a missionary of the event made
present in that rite. The dismissal at the end of each Mass is a
charge given to Christians, inviting them to work for the spread
of the Gospel and the imbuing of society with Christian values.
The Eucharist not only provides the interior strength needed for
this mission, but is also

in some sense

its plan. For the
Eucharist is a mode of being, which passes from Jesus into each
Christian, through whose testimony it is meant to spread
throughout society and culture".

94 "One must always keep in mind that the Word of God, read
by the Church and proclaimed in the liturgy, brings, in some
way, as its own end, to the sacrifice of the Covenant and to the
meal of grace, that is, the Eucharist. Therefore, the
celebration of the Mass constitutes a unique act of the Divine
worship, in which the sacrifice of praise is offered to God and man is told of the fullness of redemption",
Ordo Lectionum Missae, 10.

95 "Some because of ignorance, others because of mere simplicity of the mind do not repeat in the consecration of the chalice and in the distribution of the Eucharist what Jesus
Christ, our Lord, did and asked us to repeat. Therefore, I have
found it necessary and in conformity to Christian piety to write
you a letter about this, even if someone still makes this error
that he may discover the truth in all its light and return to
the origins of divine teaching", Cyprian, Epistle "De sacramento
calicis Dominici", 63, 1. Cf. also Basil, On the Holy Spirit,
27, 66.

96 Cf. Sacrosanctum Concilium, n. 11.

97Ibid., n. 14.

98 Cf. Redemptionis Sacramentum, 25 March 2004, nn. 43-47.

99 Ibid., nn. 117-128.

100 It is opportune to remember that the ars celebrandi needs
paradigmatic places of reference that can help all the Christian
people. It is also opportune to remember, with reference to
this, the importance of the celebrations of the Bishops of the
Cathedral Churches (cf. Institutio Generalis Missalis Romani, 20
April 2000, 22), as well as the singular function that can be
realized by the Institutes of Consecrated Life, in particular
the monastic communities (cf. John Paul II, Novo Millennio
Ineunte, nn. 32-34; Congregation for the Institutes of
Consecrated Life, Instruction Starting Afresh from Christ, nn.
8, 25-26, 31).

102 The recommendation in Sacrosanctum Concilium n. 38 leads
in this direction: "Provisions shall also be made, when revising
the liturgical books, for legitimate variations and adaptations
to different groups, regions and peoples, especially in mission
lands, provided that the substantial unity of the Roman rite is
preserved; and this should be borne in mind when drawing up the
rites and devising rubrics".

103 'On this, see the Roman Missal for the Dioceses in Zaire and
the approval of the Ordo Missae for India. Attempts on this have
also been made in Latin America.

104 Cf. John Paul II, Redemptoris Missio, nn. 52-55.

105 "'Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood lives in me
and I live in that person' (Jn 6:56). Eating this food and
drinking this drink means to live in Christ and having him
always in us", Augustine, Comment on the Gospel according to
Saint John, 26, 18.

106 As stated in the Epistle to Diognetus: "For the Christians are distinguished from other men
neither by country, nor language, nor the customs which they
observe. For they neither inhabit cities of their own, nor
employ a peculiar form of speech, nor lead a life which is
marked out by any singularity. The course of conduct which they
follow has not been devised by any speculation or deliberation
of inquisitive men; nor do they, like some, proclaim themselves
the advocates of any merely human doctrines. But, inhabiting
Greek as well as barbarian cities, according as the lot of each
of them has determined and following the customs of the natives
in respect to clothing, food and the rest of their ordinary
conduct, they display to us their wonderful and confessedly
striking method of life. They dwell in their own countries, but
simply as sojourners. As citizens, they share in all things with
others, and yet endure all things as if foreigners. Every
foreign land is to them as their native country, and every land
of their birth as a land of strangers", Epistle to Diognetus V,
15.

107Liturgy of the Hours, Monday of the Second Week, Vespers, Antiphon 3.

108 John Paul II, Ecclesia de Eucharistia, n. 20: "A significant consequence of
the eschatological tension inherent in
the Eucharist is also the fact that it spurs us on our journey through history and plants a seed of living hope in our daily commitment to the work before us. Certainly the Christian vision leads to the expectation of 'new heavens' and 'a new earth' (Rv
21:1), but this increases, rather than lessens, our sense of responsibility for the world today.... Proclaiming the death of the Lord 'until he comes' (I Cor 11:26)
entails that all who take part in the Eucharist be committed to changing their lives and making them in a certain way
completely 'Eucharistic'. It is this fruit of a transfigured existence and a
commitment to transforming the world in accordance with the
Gospel which splendidly illustrates the eschatological tension
inherent in the celebration of the Eucharist and in the
Christian life as a whole: 'Come, Lord Jesus!' (Rv 22:20)".

109 John Damascene, followed by Orthodox tradition, does not
hesitate in asserting: "And I honour and worship the matter,
which has made possible my salvation", John Damascene, Orationes
de Imaginibus I, 16.

110 Cf. John Paul II, Speech to the participants of a
convention on ecology and health, 24 March 1997, n. 5.

111 Cf. Francis of Assisi, First Admonition: "Wherefore,
O you
sons of men, how long will you be dull of heart? (cf. Ps 4:3).
Why do you not recognize the truth and believe in the Son of God
(cf. Jn 9:35)? Behold: daily he humbles himself (cf. Phil 2:8)
as when from heaven's royal throne (cf. Wis 18:15) he came down
into the womb of the Virgin. Daily he himself comes to us with
like humility; daily he descends from the bosom of the Father
(cf. Jn 1:18; 6:38) upon the altar in the hands of the priest.
And as he appeared to the Holy Apostles in true flesh, so now
also he shows himself to us in the sacred bread. And as they by
their bodily sight saw only his flesh, yet contemplating him
with the eyes of the spirit believed him to be God, so we too,
as we see with our bodily eyes the bread and wine, are to see
and firmly believe that it is his Most Holy Body and Blood
living and true. And in this way the Lord is always with his
faithful, as he himself says: Behold, I am with you until the
end of the world (cf. Mt 28:20)", Fonti Francescane,
Edizioni
Messaggero, Padova 1980, 138.

112 Cf. John Paul II, Speech to the participants of a
convention on ecology and health, 24 March 1997, n. 2.

113 John Paul II, Dominicae Cenae, n. 5: "Eucharistic worship
constitutes the soul of all Christian life. In fact, Christian
life is expressed in the fulfilling of the greatest commandment,
that is to say, in the love of God and neighbour, and this love
finds its source in the Blessed Sacrament, which is commonly
called the sacrament of love. The Eucharist signifies this
charity, and therefore recalls it, makes it present and at the
same time brings it about".

114 "You also realize, Venerable Brothers, that the Eucharist
is reserved in churches or oratories to serve as the spiritual
centre of a religious community or a parish community, indeed of
the whole Church and the whole of mankind, since it contains,
beneath the veil of the species, Christ the invisible Head of
the Church, the Redeemer of the world, the centre of all hearts,
'by whom all things are and by whom we exist' (I Cor 8:6).
Hence, it is that devotion to the divine Eucharist that exerts a
great influence upon the soul in the direction of fostering a
'social' love, in which we put the common good ahead of private
good, take up the cause of the community, the parish, the
universal Church, and extend our charity to the whole world
because we know that there are members of Christ everywhere",
Paul VI, Mysterium Fidei, nn. 68-69.

115 Cf. Lumen Gentium, nn. 52-69.

116 Cf. John Paul II, Ecclesia de Eucharistia, nn. 53-58.

Taken from:
L'Osservatore Romano
Weekly Edition in English
12 October 2005, page 12

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